


Mindblown

by kayura_sanada



Series: Fanfiction.Net Archive [2]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Epic Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mind Games, NOT A Canon AU, Pining, Post-Canon, Side Pairing: Trowa Barton/Quatre Raberba Winner, They Are All Great Bros, Worst nightmare, Wufei Is A Great Bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 10:32:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12724923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kayura_sanada/pseuds/kayura_sanada
Summary: When the destruction of the Libra fails, what happens to the world? And what happens to the man whose mind is trapped inside such a world, unable to free himself from the horrors?Originally uploaded to ffnet on 05/23/12.





	Mindblown

He'd said he'd survive, and he'd lied.

Duo sat frozen, unable to move. He'd known it was too late. He'd known as soon as Heero had run off with that damn Beam Cannon. He'd known he would be forced to watch Heero die if the worst should happen. He'd just been in denial. Throughout this entire damn debacle, the only one who'd seemed infallible was Heero. The only one who had survived death, who had done the impossible, was Heero. Heero was even the only one to break through Duo's tough act. The only one to force Duo to fall in love, all by doing absolutely nothing.

Duo screamed in that small cockpit, his eyes trapped on the sight of Libra falling, of the Beam Cannon slicing a hole in the Libra. But it didn't break up enough, not enough to save Earth from destruction, and Heero kept falling, trying to get in another hit even though it was obvious that it wouldn't happen. Duo raced forward, threw Deathscythe toward that wreckage, even though there was no chance of doing anything. The others moved forward, too, and he thought they might be trying to stop the Libra somehow, and he let them cover his flank. But then they grabbed him and pulled him back. He wrenched the controls, trying to get free, but they just clamped tighter. He thought he could hear Quatre's voice, ordering a fall back. The Wing Zero got crushed underneath the Libra's weight, under the pressure of re-entry, and it exploded.

Duo's body went slack.

* * *

"Shit," the man said, looking down at the braided man's body before he turned back to the screens. "Shit! I hooked him up to mine." He ran a hand through his short fuzz of hair, drummed his fingers against the table. "It's too late now; I have to let it play out for at least forty-eight hours. Damn. Eh?" The screen blipped, pulling up the braided man's vitals. "What's this? It seems he's having quite the reaction to it." He smiled. "It's still salvageable. Let's see where it goes, shall we, Mister Gundam Pilot?"

* * *

"Where the hell is Duo?"

Heero slammed into Wufei's office, looking harassed as hell. Wufei couldn't help the chuckle. "Yuy, is that whipped cream in your hair?"

"Shaving cream," Heero snarled, and with one hand swiped at the messy locks on his head. Pieces stuck up to the sky. "Duo felt it necessary to remind me to shave every morning."

Wufei laughed. "Didn't he say something about that last time you came in without shaving? He warned you."

"Wufei, _I'm_ warning _you_." Heero stepped in, peering into every nook and cranny to see if Duo had once again hidden within his partner's room. He ignored Wufei's snickering. "Has he come in here yet?" He gave Wufei's desk the stink eye.

Wufei sighed. "No, I haven't seen Maxwell since last night. He was called up to the commander's office just before closing. He probably won't be in until noon."

Heero scowled. "So he set this prank up before he left yesterday? How did he know I wouldn't shave?"

Wufei felt it best not to say he'd been there when Duo had set up said prank, specifically when Duo had been tying the string around the door knob. He'd wisely left before he could become an accomplice. "You never do when you drink over four cups of coffee. You're tired, and your internal alarm clock is off by about ten to fifteen minutes."

Heero frowned.

Wufei stood and moved around his desk. "Maxwell's perceptive, isn't he?"

"It's annoying."

Wufei smiled. Heero's lips had firmed. According to Duo, that meant Heero was lying. It was his tell. "Be that as it may, you won't get your revenge until this afternoon. Until then, you might wish to consider washing your hair."

Heero touched one of the spikes in his hair and grimaced. He turned on his heel and left.

Wufei waited politely for the door to shut before he clutched his gut and laughed.

* * *

The Libra fell.

Duo couldn't help but watch it as he was dragged back to the nearest colony. It was a huge, hulking mass of metal. Duo couldn't see the remains of the Wing Zero from so far away. Maybe there wasn't anything large enough to be found. Maybe all that was left of Heero was ash. Particles in the dust. He choked.

He could hear the others' voices. Wufei was coldly stating facts. Statistical probability of life still being sustained. Percentage of people who might live, how many would be able to retreat to the colonies. Overpopulation of colonies, limited supplies, overloading of sanitation systems. Trowa was muttering something, and Duo caught Quatre's name in there. Quatre was gasping out orders. "Fall back." "Get back." "We need to formulate a plan."

Duo thought he heard himself, somewhere in there, saying Heero's name. A lot.

He should have known. Heero wasn't perfect. No one was. It had been too much to ask, for a miracle to stop that damn thing. For Heero to pull that miracle out of his ass one more time. They'd relied on him too much. Duo had relied on him too much. Duo had felt like a life was opening up before him. He'd gotten those damn doctors to break off Libra, Oz had been defeated, White Fang had gone down with Zechs. But that damn piece of Libra... it had destroyed the future Duo had seen. One with all of the guys alive. Four friends forged through fire, through hell itself. All of them, living normal lives, or as normal as they could get with their specific sets of skills. He would be able to visit them. Watch them get families. Get closer to Heero, become best friends with the man, a friendship beyond the war, until he could finally work up the courage to tell Heero. Or even not. Just watch him marry the pink princess and be his best man.

He would've taken that. He would've been happy with that. To watch Heero come out of his shell, to watch everything change. For all of them.

Now everything had changed, but it was nothing like he'd imagined.

He couldn't say how long it took Quatre and Trowa to pull him away from that falling wreckage and to the colony. Long enough for the wreckage to turn red on its entry into Earth's atmosphere. Long enough for pieces of it to break off. Duo saw only one disintegrate in the heat. Only one. The rest were large enough to make it to Earth. A few might have already hit. Duo couldn't tell. He was fighting like hell not to cry.

They landed on a colony eventually. Duo didn't pay attention to which colony, or where. He docked automatically, cooling the thrusters and equalizing the cabin pressure and latching the Gundam to the metal of the landing dock. It was only after all this was done that he went to unbuckle himself and found his hands shaking.

Someone pounded on the outer hatch of the cockpit. He looked up from his attempt and just let the person in. He didn't care who it was. It could be a White Fang survivor with the intent to kill him. It could be a husk from a zombie movie, for all he cared.

He didn't know what to think when he saw that it was Quatre who entered. Quatre took one look at Duo's face and grimaced. "I'm sorry, Duo."

They were words of platitude for Duo's loss, but Duo couldn't find it in him to respond emotionally to them. "Yeah," he said, and fumbled once more with the straps. The release mechanism eluded him, and he felt the tears coming right back. He threw his hands up in frustration. "I give up!" Let him die in the damn machine. Let him and Deathscythe go together. He couldn't care.

But little Quatre came in and undid the clasps. "There." And the straps slid free. "Come on. Come with me." And Quatre put one hand over Duo's shoulder and led him out. Duo felt stupid, but when he stood, his legs were weak, hardly able to support him. "There you go; that's it."

Duo only noticed the mayhem around him when Quatre led him on the cable wench to the floor of the dock. Wufei was gone already, and Trowa seemed busy with a host of people. He looked distinctly uncomfortable. People were running around, pointing to shuttles, carrying clipboards, looking harried. It slowly filtered in. They were preparing for a mass incoming of refugees from the planet. He clenched his eyes shut. "This is really happening, isn't it?"

Quatre patted him on the back, but the little blond's face was pinched, his muscles strung tight. "Yes."

God.

Duo tried to take it all in. The landing dock was half full already, with shuttles that would normally take people to another colony, or to Earth, waiting in the dock. Others had already taken on refugees from the war, as colony after colony had been wiped out. More existed for the White Fang and World Nation forces that had to be stationed on-board the colony. Duo felt adrenaline pump through his body at the thought of meeting soldiers from either side. He welcomed the feeling. It dulled the pain.

"You need to take care of them," Duo said, and he pulled away from Quatre's grip. Quatre gave him a wide-eyed stare. "You're a leader, and you own the Winner Foundation. You can strong-arm this chaos." From the look in Quatre's eyes, the little one had already realized this. "You can't afford to carry me around. I'll... catch up." Duo tried a grin, and was upset when it slid right on. He'd smiled through worse. Hadn't he? "And you and I both know Trowa will join you soon."

Quatre wasn't fooled by Duo's smile, but he still waffled. There was a lot to prepare for. "Go," Duo urged. And though Quatre gave him one last look, the little blond went. And only then did Duo see the blood staining the boy's suit. Had he been injured during the last battle?

Duo made his way to Trowa. "Trowa," he said, interrupting the man's conversation, and pulled the pilot away despite the dark looks those speaking to Trowa gave him.

"What is it, Duo?"

"Is Quatre injured?"

Trowa frowned. "Yes. Why?"

"I told him to take over this madness, but when he left, he was bloody. Do you think–"

"I'll take care of it," Trowa said, and searched for Quatre's receding back before racing after it. Duo watched until he was alone amidst the large crowd, and he looked around, lost. He had no idea where to go.

* * *

Wufei frowned once more at the clock on his desk. Twelve oh-eight. Where was Maxwell? He'd joked that the braided pilot wouldn't be in by noon, but usually he came in for an hour and bothered Wufei before heading back off to his own office. Wufei knew the fool did it to reassure him that his braided partner was all right, that the man hadn't incurred any injuries. So why wasn't he here? And if Maxwell was injured, why hadn't he, as Maxwell's partner – and friend – been informed?

He stood, ready to confront Une, when his intercom chirped. He turned to it. Une's face stared back at him. "Commander."

"Agent Chang. You and Yuy are to report up here immediately." She didn't say anything more, simply signed off, yet his gut clenched. He raced from his room and marched to Yuy's office down the hall. As he approached, Yuy stepped out and shut his door. Yuy looked up and met Wufei's gaze. With little more than a nod, both turned to the stairwell. Around noon to one, everyone in Preventors rushed to their lunch breaks. The elevators would be busy until about two, when they normally had their own lunches. The stairs would be quicker.

"It's about Duo, isn't it?" Yuy asked, pushing open the door to the stairwell and leading Wufei up.

"It must be." Wufei wanted to tell Yuy to hurry, but Yuy was already taking the stairs three at a time. Une was only one flight of stairs above them, surrounded by tech support and computer kiosks. He didn't tell Yuy about Maxwell's habit of visiting him after a late bust, but Yuy didn't seem to need it, anyway.

They stormed out of the stairwell and through the front lobby, past the harried secretary and straight into Une's office. The room was wide, the carpet plush, the woman's desk facing the door as if to resemble a throne. She sat alone behind it, her hands steepled before her. Her brows were drawn. "Thank you for hurrying," she said, though she eyed the door they'd barged through as if it had done her a great injustice. "I'm sure you're both aware that I gave Agent Maxwell a job last night."

A job. What a cute turn of phrase.

"What happened?" Yuy asked. He took a few steps forward.

"The job was simple enough," she started, and waved them to the seats before her desk. Both refused to move. She sighed. "Agents Turry and Williams were already infiltrating the home of a suspected terrorist. The man had secreted in several boxes of tech supplies, and the two men believed he was building something, possibly a bomb. I sent Agent Maxwell in as a precautionary, just in case the suspect, a Gary Lisben, had already succeeded in creating the bomb. They each reported a successful infiltration last night around oh-one-hundred hours." She stood. "Then things went south. I can't say what has happened to any of them, but I lost contact with Turry and Williams at oh-two-fourteen hours, and Agent Maxwell at oh-four-twenty hours."

"So long?" Heero asked. "Why did you wait?"

She shook her head. "Agent Maxwell found no evidence of any weapons, but instead found what he termed 'a weird thingy.'" She frowned at the words. "He said it was like a chair from a barber shop, only there were several computers surrounding it. I asked him to gain information on the device and to, if possible, find signs of Turry and Williams. I also sent in Agent Wind to assist."

Wufei saw Heero scowl. Heero had never quite gotten used to Merquise's reappearance, or Une's acceptance of him into the Preventors. He said the man had made his decisions, and that they should accept those decisions as they were, not matter any well-meaning intentions. "And what has Agent Wind reported?" Wufei asked.

Une took a deep breath. "It appears that Agents Turry and Williams are dead. Agent Wind has not been able to find the device Agent Maxwell spoke of, but he states that he cannot infiltrate as well as Agent Maxwell."

"We need an assault unit," Heero said. "But it would be dangerous. If Duo's still alive, then our attack may force Lisben's hand."

She nodded. "We have a plan to deal with that, but I'll need you two and potentially Mister Barton, if I can."

"Barton? He's a civilian now. Simple bodyguard." Wufei tried to exchange a look with Heero, but he was already pulling out his phone.

"He may be a bodyguard," Une said, "but he hasn't lost his touch as a fighter, and right now, we need him." She looked at Heero. He punched in a number and held the phone to his ear.

"Quatre? Is Trowa there?" Heero glared at the wall. "I need to speak to him. It's about Duo." Wufei thought he could hear Winner's voice. He sounded upset. "Yes, something's wrong. That's why I need Trowa."

"We'll need to hurry on this," Une said. "If Mister Barton can't convene with us in an hour, we can't bring him with us. His skills with ammunition and agility, however, would be almost paramount to this."

"Trowa," Heero said, and Wufei and Une both turned to him once more. "Duo's in trouble and we need your help. What's your ETA?"

Trowa must have spoken immediately, without even conferring with Quatre, because Heero said, "okay," almost as soon as he'd finished asking. He closed his phone and turned to them. "He'll be here in twenty. What's the plan?"

"Lisben lives in an old house on the west side of the city. Due to the lack of sight on Agent Maxwell, we must assume there's an underground area of some sort, a place beyond a basement."

"How large is the house?"

"It sits on about an acre of land. The house is about a third of that, roughly 2600 feet, including the upper floors. Agents Turry and Williams were found on the ground floor. No basement is said to exist for the property, but..."

"If that were the case, then we would have found Maxwell already."

She nodded. "Exactly. Somehow, Maxwell made his way to where that odd device is located. We can only assume that it was somewhere on the grounds, and that Maxwell found it while making a sweep of the area. There's most likely an entrance somewhere along the edges of the perimeter, and it most likely leads to the room. I would prefer to have Mister Barton take the lead on heading in through that far perimeter. He's able to carry large loads of weaponry, and he's agile. He would be able to move alone through whatever path he would find. You two, on the other hand, will take the house while Lisben is in either the kitchen or the living room. Take him out quickly, before he has the chance to run, but keep him alive in case we need him. Understand?"

They both nodded. Now all they needed was Trowa, and they could storm Lisben's house. Hopefully, they would find Maxwell without any permanent damage.

* * *

Duo kept himself busy cleaning out junk yards to make room for incoming refugees. When the Libra collided with the Earth, he stopped working and watched. He didn't know what he expected to see; any cameras on ground zero were decimated. Satellites caught the destruction as it happened, though. The Earth lit like fireworks, great balls of red and yellow flames that spat gray dust through the air. It was surreal, seeing it from so far away. Deaths numbered in the hundreds of millions within the first hour. Duo closed his eyes and shuddered. By the end of the day, shuttles were crowding the landing docks and almost two billion people were counted among the dead.

Duo returned to Deathscythe as the day cycle came to a close. Vid screens were on all over the colony, each one showing the dust as it spread across the sky. Lightning flashed as the temperature changed drastically, the plumes of dust blocking the sun. A few more shuttles were escaping, but some people were probably staying behind, seeing who they could help. Duo could possibly do the same. He had basic medical training. But...

He turned as a crowd exited a shuttle pod. The pod looked banged up; it had most likely been hit by debris from the earth as the meteor hit. A man was shouting, riling up those around him. His goatee, Duo noticed idly, made him look like a cartoon villain. "They're a bunch of demons!" he said, and Duo hated how people turned to him. "Those White Fang bastards destroyed us! The colonies doomed us! And those damn Gundam pilots, weapons of the colonies? They helped! You know it, same as me –they even had the chance to stop this from happening! You want to tell me to calm down? To be reasonable? Why is it that you don't see what's right in front of your face – we were abandoned by these bastards out here!"

Duo took a few deep breaths and carefully stepped away from Deathscythe. It didn't take long for the rumors to circulate. White Fang was to blame for Libra's fall, and the destruction had done all that Zechs had hoped – it had turned Earth against the colonies. There were already reports of shuttles carrying people with guns, people who attacked as soon as they docked, killing everyone in sight. Relena Peacecraft and Quatre were both trying to calm everyone down, but Duo could already tell how that was going to go.

Everything was falling apart. Deathscythe had already sparked fury, and Duo could see the yelling man turning to the Gundam and gesturing wildly. Duo tried to think of what the man must have seen. Maybe he'd lost someone personally. A wife, or a kid. He had to have seen the dead. They were, according to reports, everywhere. The man's home and future had both been ruined in just one day. No job, no place to go, no money. Everything was gone. The way humans lived was demolished, and all because of one man's hate.

Duo shook his head violently. He couldn't let himself think about Heero. Couldn't let himself think about what he himself had lost, and what should have still been.

"You! You! I recognize you!" Duo turned to the sound of the man screaming and stilled. The man was pointing at him. He backed away. "You were captured by Oz! You're one of them! A Gundam pilot!"

It was like the people became a mob. They all descended on him. "You let them attack us! You let this happen!"

And it was like he was a little kid all over again. He ran.

It wouldn't have been his first choice, normally. Even as he turned tail and fled, he knew he would normally stand and face them. He'd shout them down, force his chin high, send retorts flying, dare them to try it. He might even be persuaded to scare the suckers off with his Deathscythe. But at that moment, when all he could think about was how Heero had gone in his own ball of flame, how the signal to Wing Zero had suddenly been lost, all he could think was that he had to get away.

So he did.

* * *

Gary Lisben laughed. "Unbelievable," he said. "To think that this would give me what I want, too. And what a wonderful outcome. At this rate, I'll still get the ending I want." The screen before him showed only text on what was occurring, short pieces that said 'Peacecraft argues for universal acceptance' and 'enraged father turns against 02 pilot.' That line, the last among a long stream, made him laugh all over again. "Take him," he said. "Destroy him. Show him a taste of hell."

* * *

Barton was better than his word, and in only twelve minutes, he was calling Yuy to say he'd arrived. Wufei and Yuy were already prepared, and it took Barton only a few to get up to speed. Lisben's house was a good ten minute rush through the back streets, a rush Yuy took at ninety miles an hour. Wufei would have been concerned if he hadn't seen how expertly Yuy had handled Wing and Wing Zero.

"If it was four o'clock since she'd heard from Duo, then why did she wait until noon to get in touch with us?" Trowa asked.

"Four twenty," Heero said, correcting Trowa automatically.

"She needed to verify the situation," Wufei said, unhappy with the answer, even if it made sense. "If there was any sort of imminent threat, Zechs was to kill Lisben. However, with no movement from Lisben and Duo lost, it makes more sense to say that Lisben is with Duo, and that Duo is alive. The only problem is that Zechs never found Duo."

"And where is 'Agent Wind' now?"

"He couldn't get any closer, and Une thought it best to not to include someone we don't fully trust."

Both Heero and Trowa humphed at that.

Trowa sat back in his seat behind them and crossed his arms. "It's been over eight hours. If he's been trapped for this long, then..."

It was a good thing Trowa's voice trailed off. Heero wasn't breathing very well.

Wufei leaned his head back. "Thou wast all that to me, love," he said, his voice quiet, "for which my soul did pine."

Heero's hands gripped the wheel. "Don’t."

Wufei could feel Trowa's gaze on the back of his head. "It’s been two months, Heero. You of all people should know the value of a day."

Heero glared out the windshield. He said nothing. If anything, Heero only gripped the wheel harder.

"Is this what I think it is?" Trowa asked.

"Yes. If..." At Trowa's wide-eyed look, Wufei couldn't help but smile a bit. "Though, of all of us, Maxwell is the one most likely to get captured, get beaten, and be perfectly fine."

Heero scowled, but said nothing.

Somehow, Wufei couldn't imagine too many scenarios that they may be walking into. Maxwell would have already triumphed over almost anything Lisben could throw at him. If he was being held somewhere, he was either horribly injured, unconscious, or dead. Otherwise, he'd be hailing a cab twelve blocks away from Lisben's house right about now. Wufei could only hope that the former was true, and not the latter.

"We're there," Heero said, and just like that, the conversation was dropped. Each man double-checked his weapons as Heero pulled the car to a stop two blocks away from Lisben's house. The yards of the neighboring houses were all huge, each manicured to a lime green perfection. Heero called Une. "We're here," he said, reiterating for Une's sake. "Is he in his kitchen yet?"

"No," Une said, her voice loud enough for Wufei to hear. "But he'll have to come up for food eventually. In the meantime, I would like Barton to search the premises. You two, get into position outside the house and wait for my call."

"Understood." Heero closed his phone, turned it to vibrate, and stuck it in his pants pocket. He repeated her orders for Trowa. The man slipped out without a word, leaving them alone in the car.

"I'm sorry," Wufei said. "Looking at it, this would be one of the worst times to be reminded of what Maxwell had said."

Heero said nothing, but he did stop in the act of opening his door.

"It was thoughtless. I merely wanted to state that time may not always be on your side, Yuy. Maxwell understood that, and I believe that is why he told you how he felt."

"I know." Heero looked down at his lap, where his gun rested. "I never saw this day coming. During the war, I could save him. I guess I thought I would always be there to pull him out."

"We never think it will happen to us, Yuy." Wufei tried very hard not to think of the woman he'd lost so many years ago, a woman even now he dreamed of at night. He didn't want that fate for Yuy or himself. "We need to grab what we can while we can."

"I need to know he's alive first," Heero said, and with that he popped open his door.

Wufei understood the need. Heero could deny his feelings as long as he ignored them. Still, they would remain, and nothing would come from denying them but regret. Wufei knew this from experience. But they were words one couldn't understand until one had felt it themselves. He exited the car, too.

* * *

Duo had barely crawled out of the ducts when the vid screens caught his eye again. He froze. On every screen was a picture of Quatre, the little blond grinning, the words 'Terrorist Attack' written under the photo. His heart stopped.

"Winner, after sustaining injuries during the battle on-board the Libra, was attacked today, along with Relena Peacecraft, during a press conference. While Miss Peacecraft was found alive, though with extreme injuries, Mister Winner has been declared dead by the paramedics who arrived..."

Duo screamed.

"This man was seen outside the conference hall shortly before the bombing and is assumed to be responsible in some part for the destruction of Parry Hall and the death of Mister Winner."

Duo looked up to see a photo, obviously enlarged and slightly fuzzy, and his breath stopped. That goatee. That man. He choked. He'd run from that man just an hour ago. If he had just stood up to that man... Quatre...

Duo jumped as a ringing sounded from his hip. His phone. He clutched it like one might a lifeline and opened it. "Hello?"

"Duo."

Duo jumped again at Trowa's voice. "Trowa," he whispered. "I just heard. Quatre..."

Trowa didn't say anything for a while. Then, "yeah. The man. I'm hunting him."

Duo nodded. Purpose. A mission. "I'll help."

* * *

Lisben almost cackled at the result. It was better than he could have hoped! Better than he could have dreamed! Seeing it, watching each die off one by one – what a glorious torture. Better than he'd created. Better than he could have hoped. He read each line greedily as they rose. '02 pilot meets 03 pilot outside the conference hall.' '05 pilot attacks terrorist cell.' 'Peacecraft critical condition after 04 guards Peacecraft from bomb. 87 percent chance of survival.'

'Chance of war 100 percent.'

He watched for a while longer before he cut in to the program, searching for information. 'Mallory Lisbeth,' he typed, then searched through results. According to the program, she would continue her civilian status. She wouldn't head out to help the World Nation. She wouldn't be where the pro-Romefeller faction revolted. She wouldn't die helplessly in her own hospital tent. She wouldn't leave him alone.

He sighed. Nothing else mattered.

And hey, why ruin the best part of this pilot's story?

* * *

"I found it," Trowa said, his voice soft over the speaker of the phone. "It's small, perfectly blended. Right in the open. Looks like a piece of the garden by the birdbath." Wufei nodded and gave Heero the thumbs up sign. Heero watched Wufei from the corner of his eye, his body still beneath a front window in the yard. "Is he up yet?"

"No," Wufei said. "It's only four. He may not come up for food for hours yet." Heero's lips thinned as Wufei spoke. "We may have to wait quite a while."

"Not necessarily," Heero said. "If we can get him to come upstairs, then we might be able to force a confrontation."

"And how do we do that?" Wufei asked. "We need to go in silently, and we know very little about the man or his motivations. And even if Agent Wind was able to take down any alarms–"

"Wufei." Heero turned to him. "Do you want to wait?"

He hesitated. No. He did not want to wait. Which was exactly why he was afraid of moving too soon. But he nodded. "I understand." Because if he'd acted sooner, his fiancee would still be alive.

Heero hunkered low and slid to the door. Trowa spoke through the phone. "There are no traps or alarms on this trap door. Duo must have taken them off. I'm going in."

"Go ahead," Wufei said, watching Heero as he walked up to the door and... knocked on it. His jaw dropped. "Yuy! What are you doing?"

And Yuy got back down and hid again.

"Yuy!" Wufei hissed.

"Quiet."

Unbelievable. Wufei couldn't choose whether he should glare at Heero or stare at the door as if it had done him a personal disservice.

His jaw dropped again when he heard the approach of footsteps. "You can't be serious," he said, his voice no more than a breath. He saw Yuy grinning from the corner of his eye.

Lisben mumbled something as he opened the door. Yuy moved first, taking point, and shoved his gun in Lisben's face. Wufei was right behind him, searching Lisben as the man stared down the barrel of the gun. "I should have known," he said, but he was grinning. "At this rate, though, it'll be too late. Neither of you can stop it. Neither of you can do anything. There's still thirty-six hours left before you can free him."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Yuy snatched the throat of Lisben's collar, but the man only laughed. Yuy snarled.

"Thirty-six hours," the man said again. "I got one. I finally got one, love. We can start to rest." Yuy wrenched the man's arms back and cuffed him, growling out the Miranda Rights as he did. Wufei hurried into the house. The place was clean, almost of all semblance of personality; a couch sat in front of a small television, a thin hall slid past a half-wall into a kitchen. Both were so wide as to make the empty space stark against the wooden floors. An ornate staircase split the house in half, winding elegantly up to the second floor. He ignored it.

"You, too. I'll get you all." The man grinned as Yuy pushed him inside. Wufei wordlessly handed Heero his own cuffs as Yuy dragged the man to the banister. Yuy latched the man in place, then turned. Still the man laughed. "All of you. All of you bastards. I'll strap you in and watch you die." His laugh then was a bit... maniacal.

Wufei's blood froze in his veins.

"Tell me what you've done." Yuy asked, leaning down in front of the man. Those cobalt eyes were locked on Lisben's face. The man finally stopped laughing. "Tell me what's happened to our comrade."

The man choked on his own spit. "You – you Gundam pilots, you ruined everything!" he screamed. Spittle flew into Yuy's face, but he didn't even flinch. "White Fang was destroyed! You left us survivors to rot! And my wife – my wife!" The man shook his head. "All because you stopped Milliardo Peacecraft from destroying Earth and all of its inhabitants! If you hadn't – if he'd won – my wife would still be alive!"

Yuy pulled out his gun and gently placed it against the man's shoulder. "Tell me."

"Yuy, don't." Heero didn't react to Wufei's words. He stepped closer. "Yuy–"

"I found him."

Wufei jumped at the sound of Barton's voice. He'd forgotten he still held the phone. He brought it closer to his lips. "You found Maxwell? Where?"

Yuy turned to Wufei, finally putting his weapons away again. He stood, those dead eyes set.

"He's... strapped to a chair."

Wufei jerked. Lisben had said he would strap all of them down and watch them die. "Is he alive?"

Yuy took a step forward at that, his eyes narrow.

There was an interminable pause, then, "yes. He's alive. There's a ladder here; I'll get the door from this side. Watch for it."

Wufei wanted to tell Barton to just look after Maxwell, but it had taken Barton almost an hour and a half to find the secret entrance outside. They didn't want to waste time looking around when they could be helping Barton get Maxwell free from whatever was confining him.

After all, Barton had said that he'd found Maxwell, that he was alive, that he was strapped to a chair. That meant Maxwell wasn't in a position to tell Barton just what had happened. Which meant Maxwell wasn't conscious. And though he was happy Maxwell was at least alive, he couldn't help but think on Lisben's words. 'Watch you die.' Maxwell was still in some sort of danger.

He heard a creaking to his right. Yuy hurried to it, Wufei just behind him. It was from the stove, and Wufei's jaw dropped as he saw Yuy pull down the stove and he saw the back of it opened to a metal, vent-like passage. Barton waited within. "Come on." And Barton headed back through, disappearing quickly down the passage. Wufei remembered Barton mentioning a ladder.

Yuy went first, and Wufei took the moment to close his phone, ending his call with Barton, and called Une. "We have Lisben in custody," Wufei said, not waiting for a hello, and he could only hope that she didn't ask how they managed it. "We have yet to find any other form of resistance, and we've located Maxwell."

"I'll bring in a team for clean-up. I'll call the ambulance."

"He's alive," Wufei said. He didn't say 'for now,' but it was in his voice nonetheless.

"Understood," Une said. He could hear the regret in her voice and shuddered slightly. It seemed they were all preparing themselves for the worst.

Yuy was already gone when he turned back to the passageway. It went against all instincts to climb into the stove, but once in the metal shaft, he felt right at home. It reminded him of the few times he crawled through ducts during the war. Most of the time, he simply attacked head-on, but back at the beginning – his mind kept turning to the Victoria Base – he'd gone through this. And the shaft was fairly short, ending in just a few yards in a sheer drop. A ladder was glued awkwardly to the side of the shaft, looking ready to collapse. He took care while traveling down.

"Can you get him loose?"

Wufei dropped down to the floor as soon as he could. He turned to Yuy's voice.

The room was wide, the ceiling high, each portion of the area covered in sheet metal. Despite the room, there was only a mountain of wires and computers to break up the space. The only furniture was what had to be the 'weird thingy' Maxwell had spoken of to Une. It truly did look like a barber shop chair, missing only the seat adjustor. Wires traveled from the chair to what had to be a computer terminal, sitting upon more sheet metal. Barton was making his way toward the terminal, while Yuy knelt by the chair. Wufei walked woodenly forward. In the chair, strapped in by his wrists and ankles, hooked into countless wires, eyes shut, limp...

...was Maxwell.

"What's happened to him?" Wufei asked, though the question was moot. They'd all just arrived down here, and Barton was obviously moving to the terminal in order to find the answer to that. Wufei traced the wires stuck in Maxwell's body to the terminal. His lips thinned. Would it even be possible to remove them without doing permanent damage to Maxwell? Several were latched to his head. Yuy was lightly touching Duo's body, checking his forehead for temperature, skimming over the wires, not even touching them, to trail down to Maxwell's neck. "His heartbeat is accelerated," Yuy said.

"Heero," Barton said. Yuy jumped up and went to Barton's side. Wufei looked down at Maxwell. Even in this short time, he could see a radical change in Maxwell's appearance. He was pale, ghostly so, and his wrists, trapped as they were beneath leather restraints, looked thin and weak. He'd never seen his partner like this. So still. Maxwell was never still.

"What the hell is this?"

Wufei turned. Yuy was leaning over the terminal, his eyes wide, his lips pulled back into a snarl. Wufei felt his own heart hammering. "Yuy?" he asked.

"It's... it's like a virtual reality," Barton said, his eyes scanning the monitors before him. "Look – '05 leaves colony X-17433 and begins colonial purge.' 'Mob outbreak in Sector 9 of colony X-17433 in response to 04's... death." Barton's voice shook there. "What is this?"

"Find out," Yuy snapped. He turned back to Maxwell. "And find out how to safely release Duo from it. Lisben mentioned thirty-six hours – see if you can find something that mentions forty-eight hours."

"All right." And Barton tentatively began typing into the terminal interface, switching from one keyboard to another. Yuy hurried back to Maxwell's side.

"He doesn't seem aware of us at all," Yuy said. Wufei could only nod. Virtual reality? And what did the monitor mean? Was it really what Wufei thought? That for some reason, in that virtual world, Wufei was out killing colonists? That Winner was dead? He stared dumbly down at Maxwell. What world was Maxwell trapped in?

Yuy touched Maxwell's hand. Maxwell didn't so much as twitch. "Duo."

Wufei couldn't find it in him to joke about the hole in Yuy's shell. Maxwell was frowning slightly. Did he frown when he slept? Wufei had thought the grin a permanent attachment. It was demoralizing to see his friend without his usual smile.

He almost laughed at himself. As if Maxwell frowning was the most demoralizing part in this.

"Heero."

Barton's voice was almost breathless now, and both Yuy and Wufei turned to him. "What is it?" Yuy asked. He seemed ready to pounce.

"This is a simulation," Barton said. "A virtual reality prototype. Heero, it's supposed to investigate what would have happened if Wing Zero had failed – if the Libra had crashed onto Earth."

Yuy shivered. "What?" They all turned to look at Maxwell, lifeless in the chair. "What does it mean? Can we get him out?"

"It's on lock-down. We can't get him out until forty-eight hours after the moment he was locked in. We still have over thirty-five hours. And it's hard-wired to... to end at the simulator's death. If Duo dies in there, he dies out here."

Yuy cursed. "Then I'll go in."

"No." Yuy turned to snap at Barton, but Barton was firm. "Right now, the person inside the lock-down truly believes themselves to be in such a world. It's reality to them. Even after we override that, you would still be unable to enter."

"Why?" Yuy asked, but he stopped immediately after. His eyes widened.

Wufei looked away. He knew why. They all did. If the simulation was based around the Libra's continued descent, then that meant that Yuy had failed to destroy it. It meant Yuy would have been trapped underneath the falling ship. He would have died.

Wufei took a deep breath. "I can go. It mentioned me still being alive."

"Yes," Barton said quietly, "but according to this, you're already a fair distance away. You left the colony immediately after reports of Earth survivors targeting colonists came in. It would take you another six hours to return to the colony."

"But it's not infeasible," Yuy said.

"It might as well be," Barton said, raking a hand through his long bangs. "With..." He took a deep breath. "With Quatre dead, Duo and I are attacking the killer. We've already breached the defenses and are fighting our way through the last wall of men."

Why did Wufei feel as if such news would bring about the end of everything? "So?" Yuy asked. The man's fingers were clenched tight into fists. Yuy must have sensed it, too. The foreboding.

"It reads, '03 probability of survival 34 percent. 02 probability of survival 92 percent. Countdown to 02's self-detonation in 5 hours.'"

Things were very quiet then.

"What," Yuy asked, his voice quiet, "is 'self-detonation'?"

Trowa clacked on the keyboards a bit, then, "'Self-detonation: the act of self-destruction. Suicide most prevalent; suicidal actions also common, though rarer.'"

Wufei clenched his eyes shut. That second part sounded right. Well, it sounded like what he himself would be doing. Still raw from Treize's death, he would demand justice from the world, while all it gave him was chaos and disorder. Mobs? Winner's murder? What else was happening inside the world entrapping Maxwell? He didn't want to imagine. Death. Hate. Desperation. He would be fighting against it all, knowing he wouldn't succeed, knowing that eventually he would break down and fall to sheer numbers or exhaustion. Maxwell would reach such a stage, as well.

"But if you die," Yuy said, breaking the cloying silence that had descended upon them, "then who could we send in?"

Wufei clicked open his phone again. "I'll call Une. She has to be on a nearby colony in that world."

"I can alter the VR to allow me to instantly return once I die," Barton said, pulling everyone's attention back. "Heero, I'll need your help for this." Yuy rushed to Barton's side. "This will at least allow me to speak with him, if only for a few minutes."

"You would also need to be aware that that world is a VR," Wufei said, walking up to them. The monitors were showing updates on Maxwell's prison world. '03 fires on Wilson Barrow. Misses.' 'Barrow's brother arrives.'

"You'll be returned now," Heero said, "once you die. It won't be permanent for you. But we can't do the same for Duo. Dammit."

"And his awareness?" Wufei asked. He felt useless. There was no space before the terminal for a third person, but he couldn't help his partner in any other way. "Sign me up, too. I'll begin my rendezvous with him."

"There's only room for one at a time," Yuy said. "Lisben only had the set-up for two. It's probably why he only hooked Duo up and not Williams or Turry."

"Or because he knew Duo was a pilot," Barton said. "He hated us, didn't he?"

Yuy ground his teeth at that.

"As soon as I'm out, if Une isn't here, we'll plug you in." Yuy nodded to Wufei's phone. "Isn't she answering?"

"No. Busy signal," Wufei said. Barton cursed then, and the sound almost made Wufei jump. "She'll see we called and..." His voice trailed off. "Maxwell!"

Yuy and Barton turned. Maxwell was twitching in his seat, almost spasming. "He's been shot," Barton said. "In the leg. His chances of surviving have dropped to 78 percent." Wufei looked at Duo's legs. He couldn't see anything, of course; there was no blood, no bullet wound. But as Duo's movements stilled again, Wufei knew Duo was feeling it. It was real. If he could get Duo to stand, the man would favor whichever leg had been shot.

"Update," Yuy ordered, and turned back to the terminal.

Wufei looked around as Trowa started listing off the monitor's read-out. "'Peacecraft injured during peace rally.' 'Merquise found injured. Immediate execution.' 'Colony X-15447 destroyed.' '03 attack altered to engage Barrow's brother.' '02 shoulder injury. Chances of survival..."

"What?" Yuy asked.

Barton cleared his throat. "Chances of survival 97 percent."

Yuy tilted his head. Wufei frowned. "It's higher than it had been at the beginning."

"Because I would take the hit for him," Barton said. "It's where my mind would be. Not wanting to live without Quatre, not wanting to lose someone else. I would give my life."

"Then we're running out of time," Yuy said, his fingers pounding on the keys. "I've almost finished hacking through the VR interface. Barton, go lie down. Wufei, come read the set-up specs. As soon as I've finished this, I want him hooked in."

Wufei nodded.

They worked like mad for the next few minutes, Yuy picking apart the programming, Wufei sticking needle after needle into Barton's flesh, walking back and forth between the terminal and Barton's prone form. Maxwell never moved again, never twitched. They worked silently, only breaking the quiet with interspersed reports of, "05 completed colony purge in lower L5 cluster" and "Peacecraft attacked en route to hospital. Chances of survival 15 percent." They worked feverishly, almost missing Une's return phone call. Wufei cursed under his breath as he listened to the woman, his movements paused as he focused on his commanding officer. He ended the call and considered throwing the phone across the room.

"What is it?" Yuy asked. The man's gaze never strayed from the monitors before him.

"Une had to leave. An emergency broadcast. One of Lisben's neighbors made a stink about the Preventor presence here. She's holding a press conference in five."

Yuy cursed much more loudly than Wufei had. "Then it's up to us."

Of course it was. Wasn't it always?

If anything, they rushed to finish even faster. Wufei had to slow down once the last wires were to be put in place. While the others merely needed to be hooked up to the muscles and nerves, these needed to be placed against the skull in precise positions to align with certain parts of the brain. Once the program was begun, Barton would be jolted into the virtual reality. Wufei tried to slide them in as painlessly as possible. At least they'd all been trained from childhood to endure pain; Barton hardly flinched.

Finally the last needle clinked against the cranium and Wufei was finished. Barton opened his eyes, having closed them during the last part of the operation. "How do you feel?" Wufei asked. Barton rolled his eyes.

"Like a science experiment."

Wufei felt a grin tickle the edges of his lips. Barton seemed to be taking a page out of Maxwell's book, making foolish jokes like that at such a stage. "Yuy?"

"Last piece," Yuy gritted, those cobalt eyes flickering from one monitor to the other. "Shit," he said then. "Shit. Trowa. You've been shot."

Barton stiffened. "What does it say exactly?"

"'03 shot in chest by Barrow. Chances of survival 3 percent. 02 shoots Barrow through heart. Chances of survival 0.7 percent. 02 shoots Barrow's brother. Chances of survival 16 percent."

"We're running out of time." Barton was tensing and untensing on the cold metal beneath him, trying to keep himself from reacting. "We need to hurry."

"I almost have it," Yuy snarled. He looked as if he wished to destroy the offending computer systems, but finally that maniacal grin slid across his face. "Got it. Are you ready, Trowa?"

Trowa tilted his head back and relaxed his muscles. "Ready."

"I'm sending you in."

* * *

Duo worked feverishly on Trowa's wound, one hand staunching the flow while the other worked to tear off his shirt to donate to the cause. "Don't do this to me," he said, his voice choking. He only stopped his hands from shaking through sheer force of will. "Don't do this. Don't die. Not because of me. Not..." He had to take a breath. Then another. He'd failed to take down that man, that goatee'd bastard, all because the man had said it was a good thing that the Wing Zero pilot had gone down with the Libra and he'd frozen. He'd gotten so angry, so enraged, that he'd felt the desire to stick his gun into the man's mouth and blow his brains out of the back of his head. Duo had never wanted to revel in someone's death before. And because of that, he'd hesitated.

He felt tears welling in his eyes. He should have killed the man, anyway. Should have taken the plunge and become a true god of death, one who watched a man's eyes darken with glee instead of remorse. One who killed the man who'd killed his best friend without care. One who didn't have another friend die to save him.

He clenched his eyes shut and shook his head furiously. No. He wouldn't cry. He had to be able to see what he was doing. He had to... but he already knew it was too late. It had been too late the moment he'd hesitated.

"Duo."

He jumped. Trowa's eyes were open, tiny emerald slits that shone upon him. He flinched. "Trowa. Hold on." It was useless, though. Trowa could hold on all he liked; it would only prolong his suffering. Those damn tears were back again.

"Duo, listen to me."

Oh, God. The tears were harder to hold back now. He was going to get a final speech. He bit his lip to keep it from trembling like a little girl's. "I'm listening, Trowa." He tried to staunch the blood further, to give Trowa a little more time. Trowa winced at the added pressure, but nodded.

"This is going to sound unbelievable, but I need you to believe in me."

Duo furrowed his brows. "All... right?"

Trowa winced. Blood dribbled from his lips. He held his breath, turned his head to the side, and hacked until the blood pooled under his head. His face and hair was stained red when he turned back to Duo. Duo could hardly see the man through his tears. "This is a virtual reality world."

Duo blinked.

"A man named Gary Lisben locked you into his VR machine. Do you remember him?" Duo just blinked again. His brain had flatlined. Trowa grinned. His lips were crimson. "You need to live for us, okay?" Trowa tried to reach for him, but his movements hurried the blood flow and he stopped. "Just for another thirty-six hours. Can you do that for me? For us?" Trowa searched Duo's numb gaze. "For Heero?"

Duo jerked back like he'd been shot. Heero? He opened his mouth. Closed it. Tried again. "Trowa. Do you know what you're saying?"

He nodded, the slightest movement of his head. "Heero's alive, Duo. He destroyed the Libra. He walked off on us for two months before you finally found him. You two and Wufei all joined the Preventors. Do you... remember?" He had to turn his head and cough up more blood. Duo thought he could almost feel Trowa's heartbeats beneath his fingers, spraying more blood with each beat of its drum.

Duo gasped in a breath. Maybe it wasn't Trowa's heartbeat straining so hard to beat. Maybe it was his own. "You..." He'd heard of hallucinations before death, usually as one drowned or was strangled. Was that what Trowa had done? Was doing? Duo couldn't hold it against him. In his place, Duo was sure he would be doing the same thing. "What about Quatre?"

Trowa's eyes narrowed. "He's alive. I have to drag him away from his paperwork." His words were in patches now, breathy patches. Duo wished his friend respite. He took Trowa's hand. Trowa had earned a place in that illusion of his, and in any beautiful afterlife there should be. Duo wanted to believe Trowa and Quatre would meet up in some utopian land, but all he could envision for them was darkness. A blank world full of nothing. "Promise me," Trowa said suddenly, his fingers twitching in Duo's, trying to grab on. "Promise me you will live until the thirty-six hours are over. Promise."

Duo's heart hammered in his chest. Did Trowa know Duo would want to run from this? That he'd already planned to hide in Deathscythe and destroy anything or anyone that stood in his path to isolation? Maybe Trowa had felt the desire to do so himself. Duo's lips trembled. He could see the light dimming from Trowa's eyes, could feel the blood slowing as the heart struggled to beat. Suddenly he felt time's approach, and he said, "yes. I promise. I promise you, Trowa. I'll live for you. Okay? If that's what you want, I'll live." Damn Solo's words. Boys cried, too.

Trowa's lips moved, trembling feverishly under the strain. "Just," Duo could make out, "thirty... six..."

Duo nodded. Thirty-six hours. That was doable. Right? Only thirty-six hours. A delay of the inevitable. He could promise his friend that. He spoke then, trying to soothe Trowa on his path into that darkness, and found himself repeating words he'd never thought to say. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters." Duo watched his tears splatter against the glass tile beside Trowa's head. Blood was everywhere. Everywhere. It stank up the room. "He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." He still clutched Trowa's hand, and he found that he couldn't let go. He leaned his head down and wept. His voice, when he continued, was hardly intelligible. "And yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil: for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."

All alone. While he'd always walked through fire and brimstone before, now he was all alone. He could smell the stench of blood, the stench of death, and he shook from the memories of it. "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over." He could hardly speak now. Still, he looked up, and finally he closed Trowa's eyes, knowing they would simply pop back open once rigor mortis set in. He was the only one to move in the stupid comm tower. Both of those men were dead. Trowa was dead. Once again, Duo stood before Shinigami and walked away. Again, he was left the only one alive.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Duo watched Trowa's still face for a moment more, then stood. His right leg buckled beneath him, the bullet within still deep inside the muscle. He clutched his left shoulder as he limped away. He had to hole himself up somewhere. Just for thirty-six hours. Thirty-six more hours, as the world around him simply fell apart. Three of the strongest, most just people in the world – his friends – were gone in only twelve. He padded down the emergency stairs, his eyes focused on nothing. Thirty-six more hours, and there might just be no more humans left in existence.

* * *

"How did it go?"

Barton had barely opened his eyes before Yuy started interrogating him. He just rolled Yuy a look. "Could you give me a moment? I just died."

Yuy crossed his arms and glared.

Barton's movements were slow, as if he were still feelings wounds that weren't there. "Shit," he said. His arms trembled beneath him. Wufei moved to help him up. "I don't think he believed me, but I got him to promise to stay alive."

"We know that much," Wufei said, and he helped Barton lean against Maxwell's chair. "The terminal," he explained when Barton cocked an eyebrow. "It said Maxwell's self-detonation was terminated."

"But there are still other dangers," Yuy said. "The colony he's on has crumbled into a state of anarchy. A small group of World Nation soldiers are holing Relena up, but all other leaders have been killed. It's only a matter of time before Relena will be, as well." Yuy's lips were thin as he said that.

"The safest place for Maxwell would probably be with those people," Wufei said, taking Barton's place on the floor. It was hard and cold. He shivered. "He will most likely head there."

Yuy grabbed the wires, slowly pulling each out of Barton, apologizing lowly for the pain each time Barton winced, before turning and placing each into Wufei's skin. The first few were only mildly annoying; these were linked to his muscles, in order to gauge realistic measurements of reactions when inside the VR. The next linked the nerves, and he had to grit his teeth to bare with it. Barton gave him a half-amused, half-empathetic expression, somewhere between a smirk and a furrowing of the brows. He closed his eyes. The worst of all came only after each major nerve ending had been hooked into. Next came the ones that sunk through tissue and blood vessel to lodge itself against his skull. He caught himself wincing and stopped. It made him wonder how the same devices had been implanted into Maxwell. Had Maxwell been able to struggle? If he had, what had happened? Struggling during this could cause permanent damage, could mess with the installation of the VR. Wufei hoped Maxwell had been unconscious. Lisben may have been an expert technician, but one man couldn't perfect such machinery. If there was something wrong with Maxwell's installation, the issue may be beyond their ability to fix.

"There," Yuy said, and backed away. Wufei felt several needles digging into his head. He probably looked like Barton – bleeding slightly from tiny wounds, his face scrunched with the effort of ignoring the discomfort and pain. He took a deep breath and forced his body to enter its trance.

"Begin, Yuy."

"All right," Yuy said. "I'm sending you in now."

* * *

Duo holed himself up with what the mobs were calling the Peacecraft Corps. The move had been hell, as he'd left Trowa behind – Trowa's body behind – and had crawled and slithered and slunk his way to where Quatre had been killed. He'd found a few mobsters. Had killed them. He'd had to keep himself from thinking of them as civilians; anyone who attacked him was aligned with those who'd killed Quatre and Trowa. They were enemies.

Enemies. Right now, every single human being in every single colony was an enemy.

He'd managed to trace down the Peacecraft Corps from there without an issue; he looked up the most defensive positions within the closest proximity from both Parry Hall and a hospital, narrowed it down to either a police station or an underground bar, and picked the bar. And there she'd been.

By the time he'd gotten himself inside, he was dragging his bum leg behind him and his left arm had gone numb. It swung drunkenly at his side. Relena had actually been the one to go to him, while those stupid soldiers had tried to bar his path. She'd favored her right side.

He sat back now, his bad arm limp beside him, his bed leg stretched before him, and turned a critical gaze on the others around him. The soldiers were keeping a wide berth from him, just as wary of him as he was of them. Still, the doctor they'd brought with them had taken out the bullets and stitched him up, so he would take what he could get. Relena spoke softly to a small group of them, sitting on one of the bar stools by the counter. The men leaned toward her. Duo didn't doubt she was giving them some sort of pep talk.

She must have finished, because the men broke up, moving to stations around the bar, one at each opening, several ready as back-up. Duo watched them each take their stances. If he wanted, he could kill them all, even with his bum leg and arm. Civilians, however, would probably fall to the soldiers' power. Still. So many... the mobs would find them. It was only a matter of time.

"Duo."

He turned. Relena stood before him. She folded her skirt underneath her and sat beside him, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her pale arms around them. "How are you?"

If he didn't know any better, he would think she was being sarcastic. But he was learning the woman didn't have a sarcastic bone in her body. "I'm all right," he said, and smiled for her. At least smiling was starting to hurt. "And I'm down to thirty one hours."

Her brow furrowed. "Thirty-one hours?"

He just shook his head. "Don't worry about it." He looked around again. The bar was fairly big, for a bar, made to hold a band on the large dais opposite the counter, and behind the counter was a small area where the liquor had been kept until looters had stolen it, probably just after the civilians started to arrive and all hell broke loose. "We need to get you out of here. You won't survive otherwise. We're like sitting ducks here."

She looked down at the floor and nodded. "The men were talking about that. They want to try to get me into a shuttle." Her voice was dropping with each word through her lips. "I'm sorry. About Quatre. And the other. And..." Her voice wobbled. "Heero. He was the one who... who..."

He wouldn't make her say it. "Yeah."

He couldn't look at her. He knew she was crying; tiny little hiccups slipped past her lips. "Did he... were you there?"

Duo's lips thinned. "Yeah. He died quick, princess."

They just sat there for a few moments, each falling into their own thoughts. It was nice to have someone else mourn Heero's death. No matter what, it was nice to at least have that.

But then it was time to get up, and get up he did. Relena gave him a wide-eyed look. He looked her up and down. She was wearing a pink business suit – why bother? – that was ripped to shreds in some places, missing one arm, far too short to be its original length. Her hair was wildly askew, something he didn't quite think possible for her. She'd always looked so immaculate. But he had to finally look away when he saw her wide blue eyes, watching him with a little too much knowledge in there now. Heero would be upset to learn she'd become wise to the corruption within humans. "Just keep believing in what you believe in," Duo said. "If you can do that, I can find Deathscythe and bring him to you."

He had to apologize to Trowa if he screwed this up.

"You can't!" she said as he made to leave. Every last soldier turned to them. Most pulled out their weapons. "You're still injured. You can't go!"

"I have to," he said. "You and I both know we're done for if we wait any longer. I need to go get Deathscythe."

The soldiers didn't look pleased with the reminder of the Gundams, but a couple seemed to be standing straighter. Gundams were a symbol of power, of indestructibility. Even with three pilots dead and the Wing Zero a pile of scraps, the reaction was there. Instinctive. Duo turned to the men. "Be prepared to get her out of here. Use frequency 1322-487 to reach me if anything changes. I'll be listening."

A couple of the men actually cheered.

Duo slid like a shadow from the bar into the daylight. It was almost a surprise to see the sun still shining in the colony systems. Was the thing broken? It wouldn't be too surprising. The entire colony was falling apart. The shopping district was piecemeal now. Most shops had broken glass windows, what contents remained spilling across the floors in ever smaller heaps. Cars were left in the middle of the roads. Off in the distance, smoke billowed. Probably another 'cleansing' fire. Duo hunkered low as the sound of bullets punched the air. Someone screamed. It was anarchy. Bloody anarchy. One of the tv's left in the electronics shop was still plugged in. Old and small, the little thing showed the face of a man in uniform. "We are the leaders of outer space," the man said. "We will not allow Earth's people to live in our homes. Earth's refugees will be wiped off our colonies and left to freeze. If you want to help cleanse our homes, join White Fang!"

Duo shivered. The world was turning to hell. Had this been what Zechs had wanted? He looked around again, this time letting his gaze take in the blood and dead. It had become dangerous to shop. There were bodies of women and children hidden within the corpses of the fallen. Duo couldn't believe he was witness to a world worse than the slums of L2.

He slid past the shopping district, though he had to step on several corpses in order to do so. He had to duck into one of the broken stores when a mobster scout came his way. The urge to kill was strong, the desire tempting, but he let the scout continue on his way. If he took the man out, his fellows would know enemies were in this area. He couldn't afford to have them find Relena until he had Deathscythe.

Flies buzzed around his head as he made his way back to the docking bay. He stopped trying to shoo them away after a while; there were far more than the colonies' pest control usually allowed. In their haste to arrive, the people from Earth must have brought the insects. Sad that, out of all the animals on the planet, the most annoying were the ones to survive.

The docking bay was swarming with people, and Duo found he could no longer keep himself hidden in abandoned buildings or the shadow of fallen objects. His clothing was ruined, his body aching with every step. He couldn't go in there dressed as he was. He touched his braid and felt a vice clamp around his chest. He had to do it. There wasn't much of a choice anymore. His face was recognized. His hair, his clothes, everything was described to everyone. In this colony, there was nothing but death waiting for him if he continued the way he was.

His hands trembled. It was the last thing he wanted to do. It was something he'd sworn never to do. He felt sick at the very thought of it. Still, he took out his hunting knife and held it to the nape of his neck. He hesitated. The people around the docking bay seemed to be standing at attention, each of them on some sort of guard duty. Most likely, they were protecting the Gundam from within, since they couldn't hack the controls. His buddy was waiting for him inside. There weren't many milling around who weren't carrying weapons. Each was part of the mob. As Duo watched, two young women skirted the length of the entrance to the bay, but both were grabbed. Instinctively Duo felt the need to go to their defense, but he clamped down on the desire. The two women were frisked, groped, and turned away. They ran, and Duo had to duck down further to avoid being seen. The mobsters roared with laughter. Duo gritted his teeth.

There was a sort of uniform on the men, blue jeans and white or grey or black shirts. Each kept their weapons in easy sight. Duo wouldn't have too much of a problem matching the outfit, nor with matching the attitude. But none of the men wore hats or helmets. Their heads were clear of anything. That left him with only the one option. He took several deep breaths. It wasn't like he was tossing it aside, or like he was turning away from the memories or the weight he carried, the deaths he had on his conscience. And he wasn't ignoring the way Sister Helen's fingers had tangled with the knots, or even the way Solo had smiled whenever he'd patted Duo's head. And he wasn't letting go of the way Heero had tugged on his braid whenever the man had wanted Duo's attention. He wasn't letting it go. He wasn't giving it up.

He felt like he was going to throw up.

The first few snipped hairs were the hardest. He felt them give on the nape of his neck and swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat. He had to save Relena. He had to get Deathscythe. He had to blend in.

He squeezed his eyes shut tight and lifted the knife higher. He hated how sharp he kept the blade. It cut through his hair like butter. He thought of Relena, of how Heero had sacrificed for the woman over and over again. Thought of how Quatre had stood by her, how Relena had said Quatre had died for her. He thought of Trowa, of how the man had given his life for Duo. Duo had to help Relena. He had to try to help the future. The knife finally got caught in the thickness of his hair, and suddenly he couldn't take it anymore. He sawed at the bushel of hair, yanked the blade through and tore the braid from his neck. His hair fell against the nape of his neck as he leaned forward, panting. His hands shook.

This had to be what he was alive for. This had to be what Trowa had meant when he'd said Duo had to live. He just had to... to give up a few things. He realized he was panting and gulped in a few breaths. He needed jeans and a monochrome shirt. He made to leave and looked down at his left hand. His braid sat like a limp rope in it. He actually felt tears in his eyes. "Get a grip," he said, his voice hardly more than a breath. Still, he couldn't let it go.

He carried the thing with him as he left.

* * *

Duo stood over the small grave, now dressed in the Earthlings' attire. He hadn't known they'd chosen a name for themselves until he'd met a few talking to each other in the clothing store he'd chosen to loot. It was a stupid name for a stupid war. It suited.

He glared at the upturned dirt. It wasn't usually his place to bury something, nor to mourn the loss of a possession. Hair would grow back, of course, though none of it would hold the memories of the years before the war and during. Now the new strands would possess nothing of Solo or Sister Helen or Heero or Quatre or Trowa. Perhaps his hair would no longer hold any meaning at all.

But it wasn't his hair he was mourning there, in the dirt on the fake lawn of a burned out house. It was the people it represented. All the people he'd lost. He couldn't pray – he had no one to pray to. He couldn't mourn – he hadn't the proper time, nor the knowledge of how to do so. How did one mourn so many? So much?

Finally he left the little grave and set back out for the docking bay, this time walking straight and proud down the deserted streets. He passed a few Earthlings, as he had before, but this time he only nodded to them and kept moving. Each nodded back. One thumped his chest twice, then held up the hand in the symbol of 'live long and prosper.' Duo echoed the action and had to stop from rolling his eyes. Really? Was that their secret code or something?

Sure enough, when he walked up to the holding bay, one man stopping his progress, he did that stupid secret shake and they let him right on in. He didn't even have to use his 'colonists faking escape pod from Earth' excuse. Good grief.

He did have to use it a few times once inside, of course, especially as he got closer and closer to his dear Deathscythe. They'd moved his buddy over to a small niche in the bay, a place to put broken ships until they were fixed. It had only a small opening, with no other exits. The place was guarded by two men. Duo went straight to them.

"What do you think you're doing?" one asked as he approached, and he had to bite the inside of his cheek. At least he didn't have to listen to that 'halt' bullshit he usually heard from the military goons. Still. Could these people be any less organized? Duo felt hope for the soldiers guarding Relena. Then he remembered White Fang, and he felt fear shimmer through him. He needed Deathscythe.

"I'm supposed to try to crack that thing open," Duo said, gesturing vaguely toward the inside of the room. He could barely see Deathscythe's arm through the opening.

The man stared him down, but finally he nodded and gestured Duo in. The other man quickly stepped out of the way, as well. "If you can't do it, then we're going to try to ram the thing open or melt the circuits. We're tired of waiting."

Duo nodded and tacked on his usual grin. "Well, let's see what this puppy's got, then, shall we?" He hurried inside, grateful that he'd not wasted any more time at that gravesite. Either of those two foolish plans would have meant Deathscythe's self-destruction.

Deathscythe had countless cords coiling around him. Duo touched Deathscythe's ankle. "Good to see you again, buddy. Did you miss me?" He didn't get an answer, but still he grinned. He could feel Deathscythe's power under his fingertips, could remember the strength and feeling of indestructibility. He needed that feeling, now more than ever. "We're going to have to fight like hell today, 'Scythe. And if we fail, everything's lost." Duo pulled a winch cable over and hooked his foot in it before starting it up. "I know I'm not Heero, and I know you aren't Wing Zero. But we're all the world's got right now."

No one stopped him as he hovered in front of Deathscythe's locking mechanism. He saw a few men look up at him, and he waited for them to leave before unlocking Deathscythe's hatch. He climbed up, surreptitiously looked around, and opened the hatch. He slid inside before anyone caught him. "Hey!" someone called up as he entered his password to unlock Deathscythe's controls. "Did you get in?"

"Halfway there," he said back, not deviating from his routine. He strapped himself in and turned Deathscythe's engines on.

"Sounds like you got it!" the person yelled. The external cameras blinked on. Deathscythe was still messed up from the final battle, but there were no red flags popping up as he slid the cockpit closed. He saw the man below him, still shouting up, and he grinned fir to split his face.

"Oh, yeah," he said. "I got it."

He squashed the man under Deathscythe's foot.

It became a slaughter. A few men left to try to enter a couple of the suits the World Nation had left behind, but Duo just blew them all to hell. He left nothing moving, finally breaking free from the facility and blowing up each bridge separately. Then he turned on his radio and switched it to channel 1322-487. "This is Shinigami, reporting to the Pink Posse. Come in, Pink Posse." He couldn't help it; he was grinning like a loon. Finally, he could fight back. Power. He clutched it now between his fingers. He wouldn't have to be helpless again.

"This is the World Nation's Combat Resistance Group," someone said, the static telling Duo the man hadn't turned to the exact frequency. "Speaking to... what the hell did you say your name was?"

"Shinigami," Duo said again. "The God of Death. And you're the Pink Posse; your name is way too long. How's the Bubblegum Princess?"

More static, and Duo wondered if the man on the other end was getting annoyed or not. "We're all fine, but the enemy has us pinned. We've successfully kept them out so far."

"Good. I'm on my way." He stopped talking then as a couple of banged up Leos fell in a heap in front of him. He grinned. "Aw, isn't that cute? They must think controlling these things is a cinch." He killed the two wannabe pilots before they could figure out how to pull themselves back up. He saw a few more coming toward him in the distance. "Damn. Guess the fun time's over." And he blasted on his war music.

The trip back to the shopping district didn't take nearly as long as it had on foot, even with the influx of enemy Leos and Tauruses dive-bombing him. Deathscythe finally pulled out that red flag, though, as one Leo fell and exploded a bit too close, telling Duo his main water valve was about to break. He frowned. That would make the cooling system fail, which would in turn make Deathscythe overheat. He had to be careful with his use of the lasers, or else the entire thing would bust open.

The Pink Posse was outside of the bar, which seemed to be in flames. One lone Leo, its form practically without blemish, stood before them, shooting. Duo dropped down in front of Relena and took the blows for her. Another red flag beeped. His left leg's hydraulics were busted and down to half efficiency. Duo re-calibrated and opened up the radio link again. "Didn't feel it necessary to tell me about this, did you?"

"You were busy and so were we," someone said, and the voice wasn't the same as before. Duo looked at the bodies piled on the streets and found a few to be men he'd seen in the bar. He snarled. He turned his Vulcans on the Leo, but it just hopped back until it was out of range. Duo looked around. The entire colony really was in ruins, when he let himself look. It seemed no tree was left standing, and buildings that weren't rubble already had holes the size of small cars in them. A few more Leos were coming toward him. The pilots seemed in better control of their machines, no longer flipping end over end. Duo switched on his laser scythe, even as the red flag turned into an alarm.

"Get to the princess and get out of here!"

"I'm not a princess!" Duo heard Relena shout into the radio. He watched the Pink Posse surround Relena and waited for them to take cover behind a larger pile of bodies before he shot off toward the Leo before him.

This guy had more skill, and while Duo sliced his scythe down, the man hopped away again. Duo twisted his scythe around for a quick second swing and managed to saw off a couple of the Leo's fingers. The pilot gave up on his rifle and threw it at Duo before reaching for his beam saber. Duo had to block the thing lest he dodge and it hit Relena, and by the time he managed to get it out of the way, the man was swinging his saber down on Duo's face. Duo caught it with his scythe and planted his feet beneath him. His left leg buckled, and new alarms went off. He cursed.

"Duo!" He heard the crackle over the radio, the sound grating between the harsh guitar chords of "Through the Fire and Flames." Relena was calling to him. "Duo, what about you? We can't leave you!"

"I'll meet up with you!" he said, knowing it was a lie as two other Leos punched into the ground around him. "You need to get out of here!"

"But–" Relena's argument cut off, and Duo was glad. He pushed against the saber above him as the other two Leos closed in on him. His left leg bucked once more beneath him, and the whirring got louder.

Then the water valve broke.

The whirring turned to mechanical screams as the cockpit flashed red. The scythe controls quickly turned hot in his hand, then scorching. He kept his grip through sheer force of will. One of the other Leos raised its rifle and aimed it at the cockpit. Duo cursed. He was going to break his promise to Trowa, after all.

Deathscythe's left leg finally gave out altogether, and though he kept pushing against the saber, Deathscythe fell and he lost his balance. The beam saber arced down and crashed into Deathscythe's shoulder. The heat in the cockpit turned the air to fire, the chair he sat to lava. He screamed as it ate into his skin. Something on Deathscythe exploded. In the cockpit, sparks flew.

"Maxwell!"

The saber dug into Deathscythe's shoulder until it was stuck, then was turned off to be released. More sparks shot through the cockpit, almost igniting the controls. Duo pulled his hands back then on instinct. The other Leos had their rifles on him, and as he watched one fired on him.

One Dragon Fang later, the thing exploded.

Duo jumped as another Dragon Fang descended from the sky, consuming the head and shoulders of the second Leo with the rifle. Both dropped to the ground. The third, the one with the saber, turned to face Altron as it slammed into the ground. The Dragon Fangs snaked back to the body, snapped back into place, and as one pointed toward the Leo. The burst of fire leaped out, catching the Leo in their net. "Maxwell!" Wufei shouted again, and finally Duo was dragged from his shock.

"Wufei," he said, his voice almost breathy with disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

"Maxwell, you idiot! I thought we told you to stay alive for thirty-six hours! Is that so very difficult for you?"

Duo's mouth gaped. Was Wufei joking with him? Him? And joking? Duo thought his brain might be about ready to explode. "What?"

"Don't 'what' me!" Altron stalked forward. Duo couldn't believe it, but he had to fight against the instinct to force Deathscythe into a retreat. "Just what did you think you were doing?"

Duo checked his external sensors, rather amazed that they still worked. He wiped at the sweat that ran down his brow and cheek. "Is Relena all right?"

"It doesn't matter!" Wufei said, and the man's words made Duo's jaw drop again. "This is a virtual reality world; I thought Barton told you this."

Duo's brain flatlined again. It couldn't be a coincidence that Wufei was telling him that. It couldn't be a coincidence that Wufei somehow knew Trowa's last words, especially if they'd been the hysterical ramblings of a dying man. Wufei hadn't been anywhere near Trowa as he'd died.

"Open your cockpit, Maxwell. My readings show it's far above the normal temperature limit in there."

"Uh, yeah. The water system busted." He opened his cockpit, half expecting martians or imps of some other form of faerie or demon to come tromping in, but there was nothing but the smell of smoke and ozone from the battle.

"It's a miracle you're still alive!" Wufei said, his voice like a growl, and Duo was once again forced into a stupor. Who exactly was this person before him? "Only you, Maxwell, I swear! And we still have over twenty-five hours. How the hell am I supposed to keep you alive when you're so bound and determined to die?"

Duo just kept opening and closing his mouth. He looked up at Altron as he stepped out of Deathscythe. The machine seemed as alien as its owner in that instant. Why did it automatically dip down as he stepped out, its body forming around him? Was Wufei seriously protecting him?

"My God," Wufei said then. "Maxwell... your hair..."

Duo looked down. He could feel his hair against the nape of his neck, felt the wind pick it up, saw it tossed into his face. Too short. Too light. "Yeah," he said, though he didn't think Wufei could hear him from inside the cockpit. Silence reigned then. It was almost as if Wufei understood Duo's loss. Almost as if the man mourned for it, as well.

"Get up here." Wufei's voice made Duo jump, almost right off the edge of the damn hatch. Was Wufei letting Duo get in his precious Altron? His precious Nataku? Duo's brain boggled. Apparently he was taking too long; Wufei held out one of Altron's hand for Duo to climb up on. Duo stared at it. "Hurry up, Maxwell!"

That anger was much more recognizable, and Duo walked onto the palm while he could sense a bit of sanity in the world. Wufei curled Altron's fingers, giving Duo a wall between himself and the wind as he was lifted up to the cockpit. Duo heard the slam of something heavy onto the ground. "Hold on," Wufei said, his voice grittier now. Duo clutched Altron's middle finger as Altron surged to its feet.

Duo's jaw dropped again as Wufei fled.

Duo dropped to his knees and watched as Wufei flew over Deathscythe and abandoned it, leaving it for the enemy to take. Duo shouted for Wufei to turn back, but either Wufei couldn't hear him or he was being ignored. Duo focused on hanging on after it was clear Wufei wasn't turning around, and then Wufei was crashing through one of the locked down pieces of the colony and Duo's heart raced, thinking they were entering dead space, thinking he was about to become a bloated corpse-cicle. But no, the colony space they landed in was still contained. Just empty. And Duo could immediately see why. Several pieces of the colony had fallen apart; loose coil sparked electricity down upon the colony's floor. Countless fires looked to have started and had eventually burned themselves out. Now nearly nothing remained but the metal sheeting and balustrades, with twisted contraptions that must have once been buildings creating monsters in the darkness. The colony's day systems had been shut off; from the colony's skyline, all Duo could see were the stars beyond the colony. In the distance, he could even see the neighboring colonies. It all gave him the uneasy feeling of being in space without a suit; he kept feeling as if he should be boiling alive.

"Duo. We're abandoning Altron." Duo looked over to the cockpit and felt his jaw drop once more and Wufei opened the hatch. The young man certainly didn't look any different; his hair was pulled back tight, his pants still those ridiculous loose things. But now those eyes were on him, focused completely on Duo instead of the mission or the future or justice or whatever Wufei had always constantly striven toward. The man pulled out his winch cable and held out his hand for Duo. "Come on, hurry! It won't be long before those fools realize this place has the all-clear."

The all-clear. That was right. Those civilians weren't used to the controls of a mobile suit. They wouldn't realize that the suits were informing them of an oxygenated system within this part of the colony. They would be afraid of entering space.

Duo reached for Wufei's hand and jumped slightly when those fingers curled around his wrist and tugged. Duo stumbled on his bad leg, and Wufei actually caught him and held him up until he managed to catch his own foot in the winch, and then slowly Wufei lowered them both to the ground. Duo stumbled out of the winch and rubbed his bad arm. He'd held on to Altron's finger tight enough to pull on the wound in his arm.

"Come on. We need to get you away from the Gundam."

Duo nodded, his mind unable to process a world in which Wufei didn't honor and practically worship his Gundam. Didn't he always call it Nataku? Didn't he always stick close to it? But Duo followed after Wufei as he picked his way through the twisted and torn remnants of the colony. He didn't know how Wufei found it, whether Wufei had searched the area beforehand or had been there previously, but nonetheless the man took them to a larger piece of scrap metal, almost fifteen meters high, the metal so thick Duo could easily hide behind it with Wufei by his side. Duo couldn't imagine what the metal could have originally been, but Wufei didn't seem to care. He was walking around the metal's perimeter, touching it quickly once to be sure it was cooled before leaning against it and peering through the holes left by the twists in the frame. "Wufei?"

"There should be an entrance here," Wufei said. "This place has a large underground. You and I found a large quantity of Gundanium under here over a year ago."

Duo frowned. "We haven't even known each other for a year."

Wufei turned back to him, that mouth pressed into the frown Duo was far more familiar with. "I'll explain everything later. Just help me find the place now."

Duo's brain felt like it was breaking, but he complied. He didn't know how long they searched around the wreckage. Wufei had climbed up onto a piece of the thing, trying to get a new angle, and Duo finally saw a tiny hole underneath a piece of metal big enough to create another Sea of Tranquility. "Is this it?" he asked, and watched as Wufei jumped down from metal ledge to metal ledge before landing nimbly by Duo's side.

The Chinese man bent to one knee and studied the hole. "Yes, this it it," he said, and touched the very edge of the chasm before pulling himself up. "The metal twists up on the other side, thin enough for you to get through."

Duo didn't like the sound of that. And when he followed Wufei to the other side, he could see why. It was a long, low opening, one where the heat had made the metal curl like sheet plastic, giving it a bowed spine effect. Duo thought he might just barely fit, with his body still scrawny from his poorly-nutritioned childhood, but there was no way Wufei could. Duo turned around and faced the man. "There's no way I'm going in there without you."

"Maxwell," Wufei said, then sighed. The man clapped Duo on the shoulder. Duo stared at him with wide eyes. "Barton told you, didn't he? We're in a virtual reality world. Yuy managed to tweak the system, so Barton came out just fine after he died here. The same will happen for me. But we weren't there when you were plugged in. If you die in here, you die for real. That makes you the most important person in this world. You're the only real one here. Everything else is fake."

Duo shook his head. He was the only real one? What the hell was Wufei talking about? "There's no way. What kind of person would create this kind of world? Who would want to?" But when he started to argue further, he found that he couldn't. Wufei couldn't have known what Trowa had said to him unless the two had somehow spoken to one another afterward. The idea of Wufei going to the afterlife to speak to Trowa and then returning was beyond laughable. Which left Wufei's explanation.

Duo's breath came in gasps. He felt that tight feeling in his chest loosen, and suddenly it was pushing against his rib cage. His heart hammered. Could it be true? He felt his fingers trembling at the hope that was beating against his chest. Could it? Trowa was alive? And Quatre?

And Heero?

Duo grabbed Wufei's wrists in his own. And though he'd startled the man, he didn't try to break Duo's limbs like he probably would have just twenty-four hours ago. "Heero? What about Heero, Wufei?"

Wufei blinked, then smiled. "He's well, Maxwell. And what happened to those pet names you've always thrown at me?"

Duo couldn't believe it. Was Wufei asking him to call him 'Fei? Then he shook his head. "Heero's... alive?"

"Yes. He's worried about you." Duo threw him a disbelieving look, but Wufei's face was dead serious. "He grilled Barton as soon as he returned. The two are probably watching what happens here with bated breath." The man actually smiled then. Duo thought the world really might be ending. "I'm on strict orders to keep you alive, Maxwell, so don't you make me fail my mission."

Duo had no idea what to say, and he was getting tired of acting the part of a carp. So he nodded and held on to Wufei for a little while longer, amazed at how willing Wufei was to be touched. This couldn't be the same Wufei he'd seen on the Peacemillion. This was definitely a Wufei from another time, even if Duo couldn't recall any such time. "How long ago was this?" Duo asked.

"This never happened," Wufei said. The air was deathly quiet, save for the creaking and groaning of the coils overhead. "But the defeat of White Fang and the destruction of Libra occurred over two years ago. Closer to three now."

Duo couldn't believe it. Three years? He took a deep breath. "And I can go there. To that place."

Wufei nodded. "You just need to stay alive. You have to stay alive, Maxwell, no matter what. Do you understand me?"

Duo nodded.

"Good. Now go. I'll stay hunkered down within the metal. No matter what happens, Maxwell, you need to stay hidden. They won't find this hole; they won't know to look for it. Even if I die, you have to stay in there. Understood?"

Duo nodded again, his heart hammering in his chest. Wufei would not act like this if this were the real world. He just needed to stay alive long enough. He needed to–

A loud crash echoed over their heads, and Duo turned to the sight of several Leos entering the dead space. One flew straight into one of the coils, and with a thunderous buzz, electricity coursed over the metal. It exploded and rained burning metal onto the colony floor. The ground shook as the pieces landed. "Get in, Maxwell! Now!" Wufei pushed Duo back and climbed up onto the metal. Duo watched for just a second longer, just long enough to see a piece of metal soar over them and thunk loudly against the twisted metal that hid Duo's hiding place. Then he slid onto his stomach and wormed his way feet-first into the tiny space. It took some maneuvering and a little bit of claustrophobia as he struggled to not get stuck, but then he slid in and found himself in a large, open area, a place carved out of the metal sheets themselves. He tucked himself within and waited for the end to finally come.

* * *

Duo didn't know how long he sat huddled against the wall in his underground hole, but he could hear when the Earthlings finally found Wufei.

He could tell not just because of the shuddering of the ground as several suits landed on top of Duo's expansive hiding spot, but because he heard the lasers being fired. He stood on instinct, ready to fight, to defend his comrade, and remembered what Wufei had said. Wufei had known that they would find him. He'd known. Duo had known, too, somewhere deep in his heart. He'd known he would be left alive, and he'd known he would continue hiding. He didn't stand a chance against the sheer numbers out there. Even if he did...

He breathed deep, heavy breaths. He'd believed Wufei when the man had said Duo was in a virtual reality. A fake world. He'd believed because the logic was conclusive. Trowa's last words, Wufei's sudden shift in personality. Duo had known something was different. He still knew. But that didn't stop his gut from clenching over and over as he heard those rifles blast out, as he felt the metal shake above him as a beam saber slammed through it. Didn't stop the dead ache inside as the pounding and shooting stopped and the Leos stomped around, looking for new quarry.

Duo covered his ears and shook his head as his mind kept telling him, over and over, that he was the last Gundam pilot alive, and hey... what if he was wrong?

He shook his head vigorously. No. No, no way would Wufei give his life for Duo unless it was for something important. Like a virtual reality world. After all, Duo had kind've been in the middle of something rather important when Wufei had so ignominiously interrupted.

Duo almost laughed. He'd never thought to put the adjective ignominiously to Wufei before.

He had to believe in what he'd believed before, or else he had to live with the fact that he had, in essence, killed Wufei. He shuddered at the very thought.

Time passed even slower then, as Duo's mind kept nipping at its own heels. He felt the ground tremor as the Leos passed overhead. They went back and forth, closer and then farther away. Duo ran his hands through his bangs and felt them slide straight through to the ends of his hair. He pulled them back in his lap. Minutes ticked away. Duo wondered how long it had been, if half a day had passed or if it had only been an hour or so. Was he close to the end? He felt tired, but he hadn't slept since before the Libra crashed. Maybe he should sleep? But he knew he couldn't. Not with so many enemies nearby. He could feel a weakness in his limbs that told him he'd been without sleep too long. Far too long.

A Leo passed by overhead again, but this time it stopped. Duo heard a grinding sound from above, then a crunch, then silence. He looked up, though of course he couldn't see anything, and narrowed his eyes. If he focused, he could hear the soft whirrs and tiny clanks that spoke of moving limbs. Arms. The Leo was moving his arms. Then a new buzzing whirr that told him it had pulled out its beam saber.

Duo stood then, already knowing what the thing planned. The pilot couldn't know, of course; there was no way of knowing this place was down here. Duo hadn't known of any hidden passageway in here, even after he'd studied the colony. And Wufei had been certain this place was properly concealed, which meant there were probably no references to the hidden area in any blueprints or maps. The pilot was probably just fed up with looking around and was double-checking to make sure Duo wasn't hiding in the shrapnel like Wufei had.

The ground shook as the beam saber sank into the metal above him. Duo heard the grinding , high-pitched drone as the laser heated the metal enough to make it melt around the beam. Another Leo stomped up then, and Duo shrank back against the wall. Both started hacking away, until Duo couldn't hear anything except the screams of the metal and the pounding of the earth around him. He held his hands to his ears and squeezed his eyes shut. He thought his ears were bleeding. He thought he might be going deaf.

Then everything went silent and Duo held his breath.

The next instant a saber pounded through the hole, punching through the metal so far Duo feared it had gone all the way through and opened him to vacuum. Then the heat hit him and he threw his hands in front of himself. The saber twitched back and forth burning away more of the metal. Duo could hear the air as it was pulled to the thinnest part of the metal, and when the saber was finally pulled free, tiny hisses warned Duo of the cracks in the colony the saber had made. Duo's heart pounded in his chest.

After all this... after all this, he was still going to die. And he was going to die slowly.

He begged the sword to come back, to punch through the metal above him and kill him outright, but the hissing was suddenly beaten back by the sound of retreating suits. The Leos must have alerted them to the failing structure. They must have made a run for it. What novices. Didn't they know the suits were vacuum sealed?

It didn't matter, of course. Duo felt a lightness in his limbs and gulped. It was going to be even slower than normal, then. He waited only a few seconds, just long enough to not feel any of those Leos punching off of the ground, before he moved over to the entrance, trying to test to see If he could reach the opening. But the beam saber had left a deep, wide hole. Duo couldn't see the bottom in the darkness, but the sucking sounds were getting louder, the lightness turning to pain. He could feel his skin bubbling. He sucked in a breath and felt his mouth go dry. He moved away from the hole, though it was useless. He clenched his eyes shut.

Quatre Trowa. Wufei. Heero. He hadn't known how desperately he'd wanted that future for all of them until it was taken from him, right there at the last minute. He felt his blood boil, felt his veins pop beneath his skin, and screamed, though all it did was make his tongue bloat until it, too, popped. The blood splattered, but it hung in the air for a moment before moving toward the holes in the metal. Duo hadn't even realized his eyelids had been sheared off until he felt his eyes pop, too.

He wanted to find that place. He wanted to enter that world Trowa had entered, wanted to believe he would find the others waiting in some higher place. Or maybe he just wanted that other world Wufei and Trowa had spoken of, one where they'd all lived through that disaster of a war.

He felt organs explode within him and waited for his heart and lungs and brain to go next. Waited for the unbearable agony to crescendo to its climax.

It didn't. Everything just went dark.

* * *

Pain echoed up and down his body, ghostly handprints that pushed and prodded all over him. His skin tingled. His tongue and eyes felt bloated. His head felt heavy, weighted. And he was tired. So very, very tired.

He groaned.

"Maxwell." Someone touched his arm. He frowned. "Maxwell, can you hear me?"

It was Wufei's voice. He remembered Wufei. The man had come back and yapped on about how the world he knew was a virtual one and how the real one included the successful destruction of Libra and Quatre and Trowa and Heero.

He struggled to open his eyes, floundered to work his tongue. "'Fei?" he managed, and frowned. His tongue had sizzled like overcooked bacon. He remembered. He shuddered. He remembered...

His brow furrowed. He remembered cooking bacon. He remembered cooking bacon in his apartment, remembered how Quatre and Wufei had been going on and on about some philosophical thing and how Trowa had helped him with the eggs Benedict that Quatre liked that Duo could never quite get. He remembered Heero sitting at the table watching him, tossing jokes out about how Duo looked like an alien cooking for once and how Heero had ruminated on how long it had taken for him to learn how to scramble eggs. He remembered.

He remembered how Wufei had agonized over buying a pet, since the man was always out late working and how the man had never had a pet before. He remembered telling Wufei to either pick one or he would pick one – and Duo had been leaning toward a ferret. The man had quickly bought a cat. A calico cat, one with those six-fingered paws. He remembered its name and smiled. Of course the man had named it Nataku.

He remembered entering this house, finding the secret entrance in the back yard and disabling the alarms before heading in. Remembered that sweet, cloying smell after he'd already moved halfway down the long tunnel. Remembered covering his face and shoving forward, trying to find the source, knowing it was too late to turn back. Remembered thinking how pissed Wufei, his partner, was going to be when he found out Duo had gotten caught without Wufei around to yell at him for it. He remembered passing out with his gun in his hand, wishing he could shoot something.

He remembered telling Heero he loved the man. Remembered how Heero's gaze had dropped, remembered how Heero had struggled to say something, anything. Remembered how he'd forced out that damned cheery laugh of his and clapped Heero on the shoulder and said, "it's fine, buddy; I just wanted you to know."

He remembered. He remembered it all.

He opened his eyes and gasped.

"Duo."

He turned his gaze over to Heero. That voice. That body. He saw the changes in Heero's form, the added height and smooth, taut cheeks and high cheekbones and corded muscles. He looked at that man with his Preventors uniform and he felt tears in his eyes. He didn't bother trying to fight them anymore. "Heero." One of the tears fell. "You're alive." He looked around. He was in a chair. Wires slid from his body to a large, bulking bunch of monitors and consoles. The monitors were black. He saw Trowa, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He saw Wufei, wearily moving to sit against the terminal. "You're all alive."

Wufei smiled for him as he sat. "As are you, Maxwell."

Duo heard noises from above, thumping sounds. He tensed. "What–"

"You're all right," Heero said. "As soon as we'd brought you back, Une took her men back upstairs." Duo frowned. Why would the woman be so kind as to do that?"

Trowa chuckled. "She's giving us some privacy, Duo."

Duo considered that for a moment. "Oh," he said finally. He closed his eyes. "I'm tired."

He felt a warmth over his head and knew Heero's hand was hovering above him. "We'll get you to a hospital. Just hold on. We need to take these things out of you."

Duo sighed and let those fingers glide over his he cursed resoundly as Heero pulled out one of the offensive needles. His partner had the audacity to chuckle.

* * *

"I hate shrinks."

Wufei hardly looked up from the pile of paperwork on his desk to grunt in Duo's direction. "That's nice."

Duo snarled. "Excuse you! You don't have to listen to that neo-lovey mumbo jumbo. 'And how does it feel to remember that other world so vividly?' 'How did it feel to lose your partner?' 'How did it feel to die in a vacuum?' I swear to God, one more 'how does it feel' and I'm gonna..." He trailed off when he noticed how still Wufei had gotten. "'Fei?"

Wufei cleared his throat and finally looked up, putting his pencil down. "Maxwell." The man seemed to be girding himself up for something, and Duo raised a brow. "I apologize," the man said in a rush. Duo's other eyebrow shot up at that one. "I should have hidden somewhere other than those beams," he said. "I'd hoped they would believe we'd split up and would search other areas. I hadn't thought they would find me so quickly. I'd only stayed hidden for just over eight hours. It gave them too long to search the area thoroughly. I failed you."

Duo waved his hands before the man could continue even further. "What are you on about?" Duo asked, finally cutting Wufei off. "You saved me. I'm alive. Doesn't that mean you did everything right?"

Wufei opened his mouth. Closed it. Smiled. "I suppose so." He gestured to the door of Wufei's office. "Shall we go, then?"

Duo was amazed that Wufei was ready to leave his paperwork undone, but he snatched at the chance, nonetheless. The guys were giving him a little leeway still, even though it had been a couple of weeks since Lisben's VR trip. Quatre, of course, had been attempting to spoil him rotten.

"Sure!" he said, and bounced over to Wufei's side. He knew his partner was watching him still, seeing if Duo had the limp he'd carried for a few days, his mind still experiencing the pain from his bum leg and arm. He'd had trouble talking those first few days, too, which had terrified his friends. And he'd often complained that his eyes and organs felt weird. And, of course, he'd often touched his braid, amazed that it was still there. But overall, he was feeling much better. He very rarely had confusion over what had happened and what hadn't, and he could at least remember the pieces of his real past, though his fake past still haunted him.

He couldn't get enough of Heero's face.

And Heero was there, exiting his own office, when Duo and Wufei entered the hall. "Heero!" Duo called, waving unnecessarily. He saw Heero's lips quirk in a small smile as Heero came over to him.

It was amazing what a different life could do to a person's mind. Duo remembered the agony of the past couple of months, ever since he'd told Heero how he felt. He still felt it, but it wasn't as debilitating as it had been. Not even close. He'd never known the horror of watching Heero die before. It was a life-altering experience. All of it had been.

"Crap," Wufei said. "Maxwell, I'll be right back; there was a part of the report that I had to send to Une before I left."

Duo smiled. "Okay. I'll wait out here."

Heero's eyes narrowed as Wufei slipped back inside, the man's apology muffled by the closing door. "You aren't planning on doing anything in my office, are you, Duo?"

Duo widened his eyes a bit. "Whatever do you mean?"

Heero's eyes narrowed almost to slits. "I'm on to you."

"On to what?"

Heero stalked forward, and Duo got the pleasure of feeling Heero's heat on him as the man glared down at him. Duo really hated his stunted growth. "On to you. Acting innocent." And then Heero reached up and touched Duo's braid. "How are you?"

Duo felt his breath whoosh out at the unexpected change. Then again, Heero had shown a rather protective side to himself over the past couple of weeks. "I'm getting better," he said, deciding to answer honestly for a change. No one else was in the hallway, after all. "It's still... difficult. It had all been so real, Heero. And everything was..." But he stopped himself there. He'd learned that the guys had read what was happening to him on the monitor. They already knew what he'd seen. They didn't need the gorier part of the details. "But I'm getting back on track. I like this world a lot more." And he grinned for Heero.

"I can't imagine it."

Duo frowned and looked into Heero's eyes. They were serious. Dangerous serious. Duo realized that Heero hadn't been serious with him since that first night when Duo had fallen asleep and not woken up for over twenty-four hours. Only Quatre had been serious, fawning over Duo and hugging him until he'd thought he would pop open like a stuffed animal. They'd all let Duo set the mood, and Duo had wanted to joke. He'd wanted to create happy memories to battle against the bad, and the guys had let him.

Duo blinked up at Heero and wanted to thank him, but Heero spoke first. "What it must have been like, watching us all die. I can't imagine it."

Duo hated how his bottom lip trembled. He'd cried that one time. He couldn't let himself cry again. There was no way. Boys may be allowed to cry, but only on rare, special occasions. This wasn't that. "It's better now," Duo said, unable to brush off the memories that still lingered behind his eyes. "Every time I remember those times, I can call one of you or go to you and know that you're still here."

Heero touched his shoulder, then slid away. Duo frowned at the added distance. "You told me something. A while ago." Heero took a deep breath. "Two and a half months ago."

Duo's breath stilled.

"You told me that you loved me," he said, and Duo just looked at the floor and tried not to cringe. He really didn't want to get into this.

"Look," he tried, but Heero cut him off again.

"I love you, too."

Duo gaped.

Heero smiled, though it looked strained. "I'd hoped that denying it would make things better." At Duo's questioning look, Heero sighed and – and here Duo's jaw practically hit the floor – looked away. "I'm not gay, Duo."

That hurt, but before the pain could really dig in, Duo found himself confused. "Then how could you..." he couldn't say the words, "care for me?"

Heero shrugged. "I don't know." The man sounded frustrated as hell over that fact. "I don't know, but I do. It's you I think about all the time. You I worry about when I don't know where you are or what you're doing. You I enjoy being around. You I dream about." Duo saw the blush on Heero's cheeks and quickly put two and two together with that last part. "It just... ends up being obvious."

Duo didn't know what to say. Thanks? Congratulations? "So what now?" Duo asked, and hated the words as soon as they slipped out. Nothing like putting the weight back on Heero's shoulders.

"Now... I move forward." Heero stood straight. "It's not like I dislike homosexuality in and of itself. I just wasn't ready for it to be a personal trait." He squared his shoulders and touched Duo's braid again. "But if I wasted this chance, then I will have lost something very precious. I chose to tell you after that disaster with Lisben, but I also know I made you wait too long." And Heero's eyes were searching Duo's own, looking for distance, perhaps, or defeat. Or maybe checking to see if Duo had moved on.

Duo scowled. He grabbed Heero's head and pulled it down that short space until their lips met. It wasn't fire, or electricity, or a volcano. There was no tongue, no battle for dominance, no demand. Duo was stunned by the simplicity of it. The purity. Their lips met, and the world stilled. The heat curled like mist from his lips down to his groin, but all it did was ease him forward, pull Heero down a bit more. All it did was tilt the world back on its proper axis and wash away the burden Duo had thought smaller now, the burden that had clamped his heart in his chest. It felt like his heart would burst when finally it was freed, like it was almost too big for his rib cage.

Finally Duo pulled back. "I'd given up on us. Not on you." He lifted his hand to touch those unruly bangs, just like he'd always dreamed, but Heero snagged his hand. Those deep blue eyes bore into him.

"And do you no longer believe in us?"

Duo pulled his arm back, forcing Heero, with his hand encircling Duo's wrist, to slip his arm to Duo's waist. "Hmm. Let me think about that. Let's test it out, shall we?" He tugged Heero's hand back a little farther, until Heero's fingers grazed his lower back. "Let's say about twenty years?"

Heero smiled at that. "Only twenty?" He leaned down to touch his nose to Duo's.

"It's a good starting point," Duo said, and tilted his head for the kiss. This time there was tongue, and there was heat.

Duo didn't realize until the next morning that Wufei had lingered far too long in his office, but he figured leaving the guy alone in the building had almost paid him back for his sneakiness. He swore to prank him the next day. Just so they could call it even.


End file.
